Data preservation is important when migrating computers or computer-based devices from one operating system (OS) to some later version or even to a different physical machine. It is also imperative in the deployment of software onto computing devices. The impact of an OS migration is typically the reformatting or repartitioning of the local hard drive on the computer, resulting in a loss of data stored on the hard drive. To prevent the loss of these data, the files on the hard drive can be backed up and stored elsewhere, for example, on a networked server, prior to the updating of the OS. However, preserving all files residing on the computing device results in unnecessary use of server and client disk space, and drastically slows down the migration process. This can be particularly problematic in an enterprise or production environment, where multitudes of computing devices are involved in a migration process.
The present disclosure describes an improved process and system for locating, preserving, and then restoring all local data to a computer hard drive in an efficient manner, without the risk of accidental data loss. As used herein, the terms computer, computing device, computer-based device, etc. are used to refer to any type of computer, such as a personal computer (PC), lap top, personal digital assistant (PDA), workstation, server, cellular phone or other wireless device, or the like.
Conventional methods employed to preserve user files are data-inclusive. In other words, data is identified by some positive test, such as the file's extension or directory path. For example, a data preservation template may specify that all files should be preserved that have file names ending in .DOC, .XLS, and MDB, in addition to any files found in a user's C:\Data directory. The files having the specified extensions are then included in the data to be preserved during the migration process.
One product, Desktop DNA, available from Miramar Systems, uses this approach on a per-application basis. For example, a Desktop DNA template created for Lotus Notes data preservation might identify files ending in NSF and .NTF. Other commercially available products that approach data preservation in the same way include PTPro available from Tranxition, PC Transplant Pro available from Altiris, and Aloha Bob available from Eisenworld.
A sample screen from Altiris' PC Transplant Pro is shown in FIG. 1. This configuration utility allows an administrator to preserve Adobe Acrobat ties based on their .FDF and .PDF extension, or Visio 2000 files based on their .VSD and .VSS extension.
In addition to preservation by file extension, current migration toolsets allow preservation by directory. Typically, information service (IS) departments ask users to save their local data files to a specific-folder, such as C:\Data or C:\My Documents. Conventional methods of data preservation allow an administrator to mark this type of directory to be preserved.
Although useful in some situations, identification of data by file extension or parent directory suffers from several disadvantages:
A user can apply any file extension to a data file. For example, despite the use of. .DOC as the default extension for Microsoft Word documents, a user may name a very important file with a .SAV extension. Conventional data preservation methods would miss this file.
A user can save a data file to any directory, despite expectations that data will only be found in a standard location. For example, a user may create a local directory called C:\Keyfiles and save all his/her data files here. Traditional data preservations would miss this directory and it would be lost during an OS migration.
The data-inclusive approach requires knowledge of all possible applications that might have data files to be preserved. Traditional preservation methods match file extensions, which are application-specific. This can cause problems if an application is not known prior to the migration. For example, a custom or unidentified application might save files with an ABC extension, all of which would be lost in a migration.
A user can save a data file in a compressed archive. For example, a user may compress data files into a ZIP compressed archive file. Traditional data preservations would miss these files because they would not open the compressed archive looking for data of a particular extension.